TPG reveals pricey South Brisbane plans

news National broadband provider TPG has revealed the prices it will charge for access to fibre broadband infrastructure rolled out by Telstra in the South Brisbane exchange area.

Telstra has chosen to replace the copper connections to about 20,000 premises in the region as its South Brisbane telephone exchange — where the copper cables terminate — is being closed in order to make way for the new Queensland Children’s Hospital in the area. The region is one of the first in Australia to receive fibre services to the home — but is not part of the Federal Government’s flagship National Broadband Network project, although the long-term plan is for the infrastructure to become part of the NBN. The first customers recently went live on the network — including customers of ISPs who had gained wholesale access to the network.

On its web site, TPG revealed this week it would offer just two plans in the area. Although the fibre is technically capable of offerings speeds up to 100Mbps, TPG will only offer two speeds — one with 8Mbps downlink and 384kbps uplink speeds, and a second plan offering 30Mbps/1Mbps speeds.

The plans will come with 200GB and 300GB of quota respectively, consisting of 100GB/100GB and 150GB/150GB on-peak/off-peak quota, and will cost $59.98 and $69.98 respectively. Both plans include $29.99 worth of line rental costs for a normal home telephone. A free Netcomm router is included in the plans. TPG will shape customers to speeds of just 256kbps/256kps after they have exhausted their quota.

The plans offer dramatically less value for similar prices compared with TPG’s existing ADSL2+ plans. For example, the company offers a $59.99 bundled plan that comes with line rental and unlimited downloads, or a 500GB plan for the same price. The 500GB plan is shaped to speeds of 1Mbps/1Mbps once the quota is exhausted. The company offers similarly priced naked DSL plans.

Fellow ISPs iiNet and Internode have bitterly complained about Telstra’s South Brisbane plans over the past few months.

At the time, Telstra reacted by stating that the prices it was offering to wholesale customers allowed them to be competitive, and that it had offered transitional assistance to ease the migration of wholesale services onto the network. Telstra had at that stage signed up 18 wholesale customers onto the South Brisbane network, it said.

opinion/analysis
Looks like iiNet and Internode’s complaints were valid. I can’t imagine TPG charging prices this poor unless it was forced to by Telstra. It appears as if the ACCC has some decisions to make. And Telstra … seriously? I thought you were supposed to be all warm and cuddly these days ;)

Just proves the fact that TPG relies on telling its customers “ow its your house wiring” to cover up its lack of available bandwidth.
With the South Brisbane Fibre, each customer is guaranteed “X” speed no matter what. Where the problem lies with the over congested carrier not the house wiring.

Would love to see what spin TPG tells its customers on the South Brisbane Fibre as to why they have slow speed. Bahahaah

Yep, you just keep using that multithread speedtest test and you’ll always get good speed. The other tests are rubbish right? Everyone on TPG knows that, totally inaccurate, they show a single thread is slow, that can’t be right ;)

Probably worth pointing out that these plans are only available to existing customers on that type plan. So that $70 bundled plan is ONLY available to those who currently bundled/naked. Customers like me have to take up an unbundled plan ($60) AND maintain a phone line with Telstra ($23/month), bringing the total cost up to $83/month. Given that this has much less quota (150gb instead of unlimited) and they demand a 12 month contract, its a bit tough to swallow.

I’m undecided as whether to grudgingly sign up or simply dump my fixed line connection and move over to pre-paid mobile broadband.

Time for Internode and others to put up a few towers. The NBN was supposed to eliminate quotas and shaping. I prefer quantity to speed.

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